Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

The writing of another chapter in Texas’ troubled history with the death penalty is underway, and is being shaped by questions about the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs and the right of the public to know what is being used in its name.

Last week, State District Court Judge Suzanne Covington in Austin delivered a limited victory for transparency and the rights of defendants when she ordered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to tell the attorneys of two death row inmates the source of the new supply of pentobarbital it plans to use in upcoming lethal injections. The state had argued secrecy was needed to protect the safety of the maker of the pentobarbital; Covington did not order the state to publicly disclose the supplier’s name.

The next morning a three-judge panel of the 3rd Texas Court of Appeals rightly upheld Covington’s ruling. Friday afternoon, however, the Texas Supreme Court stopped Covington’s order from taking effect until justices could study the issue further.

And:

Given the need to honor constitutional protections and transparency, we see no compelling reason why the state shouldn’t reveal information about its supply of pentobarbital.

Thanks to good work by Katie Fretland of the Colorado Independent, a nonprofit news operation, we know that even matters of life and death are not immune from lawyerly humor.

Fretland recently wrote about states’ ongoing problems in procuring execution drugs. She got 172 pages of emails sparked by Texas Assistant Attorney General Laura Grant Turbin’s January 2011 request for advice from assistant AGs around the nation on using different drugs for executions.

“Records show Oklahoma officials wanted perks for helping Texas in search for scarce lethal injections,” said the headline.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.